An official of the Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday, July 2, raised some concerns on how the World Bank handled an education report revealing that 80 percent of Filipino learners showed poor learning results.
In an interview over Teleradyo on Friday, July 2, DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan explained that the DepEd “welcomes” the said World Bank report - noting that some of the recommendations that were made are also aligned with DepEd’s proposals and interventions.
“There are other findings that will require deeper studies I would like to say also that we would like to express some concern about the handling of the World Bank of this report,” Malaluan said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Malaluan pointed out that the World Bank is a development partner. “They work directly with us but it seems that our friends from the media were able to get a copy of the report first,” he said.
The World Bank, Malaluan said, did not give the DepEd a copy of the report ahead of time. Thus, there was no “opportunity to look into their study.”
Malaluan also stressed that the said World Bank report may not be updated since the recent education reform initiatives and interventions undertaken by DepEd were not included.
“There is no acknowledgement in this study about our reform initiatives that are already being done at DepEd even if they have direct knowledge about these,” Malaluan said.
DepEd and the World Bank, he added, also have some partnerships under negotiation to lend support in various initiatives related education quality in the country.
Moreover, Malaluan also pointed out the World Bank report “lacks acknowledgement that the challenges related to education quality is a product of historical development.”
The World Bank, Malaluan added, is “actually a key participant in this historical development with lending and major reform programs in education.”
Malaluan mentioned some partnerships between DepEd and the World Bank which started way back in 1981. The most recent ones, he said, include the national program support from basic education in 2007 to 2011 and the learning equity and accountability program support in 2018.
“We are as much a partner in addressing the quality of education and we hope that they will also acknowledge the things that are being done - that’s the context,” Malaluan added.
Malaluan also found it regretful that some of the ongoing reform initiatives of DepEd were not acknowledged by the World Bank in the said study.
“We also hope that the World Bank will be able to provide a fuller context and fairer discussion not only because we are being defensive about it but because we recognize the issues and the challenges on education quality in the country,” Malaluan added.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/02/deped-world-bank-report-did-not-acknowledge-current-reform-initiatives-for-quality-education/
Meanwhile, Malaluan assured that the education reform initiatives related to pivot from access to quality are set in place.
“There are others that need further study, there are many factors that we are looking into but we are assuring our fellowmen that we recognize these challenges in education quality,” he explained.